The historic Rai journalist Franco Di Mare died at the age of 68 from the consequences of an aggressive tumor whose discovery he announced only a few weeks ago. «Embraced by the love of his wife, daughter, sisters and brother and by the affection of his closest friends, the journalist Franco Di Mare passed away today in Rome. Communication for the funeral will follow”, he announced in a brief. Di Mare had revealed that he had mesothelioma, a tumor that in 90 percent of cases is due to exposure to asbestos dust, which he suspected he had breathed in during his years as a RAI correspondent in the Balkans for the Yugoslavian war. For this reason he was assisted by the lawyer Ezio Bonanni, president of the National Asbestos Observatory (Ona). During the announcement of the disease on TV, in the broadcast What’s the weather like by Fabio Fazio on the Nine, Di Mare said he was very saddened by the behavior of his former colleagues: «I can’t understand the absence on a human level, people to whom I addressed informally who denied themselves on the phone. I find only one adjective: it is repugnant.” Due to her health conditions, she had in fact submitted a request for service status, a document that certifies her work activity, movements and places where she had worked during her career. Necessary to ascertain any responsibilities of the company which “is responsible for verifying what the risks are for one of its employees who is sent to war zones and implementing all the necessary protection measures”, explained Bonanni. She had not received a response to her requests from Rai, until at the beginning of May when the current top management of the company announced to the Supervisory Commission that they had sent all the necessary documentation. The journalist’s lawyer also raised doubts about the presence of asbestos in the Viale Mazzini office: “I asked for access to the documents to verify whether the office had been remediated, but I have not yet been allowed to do so.” Bonanni then followed another Rai employee suffering from mesothelioma, Mariusz Sodkiewicz, who had worked in the Rome office for over 20 years since 2002, who died just three days ago. The funeral will be held on Monday 20 May at 2pm at the Church of the Artists in Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
